Incident at Bemidji’s Paul Bunyan Mall Sends Shockwaves Through the Community

On April 7 at the Paul Bunyan Mall in Bemidji, an incident took place involving a Native American teenager and a person presumed to be a mall employee that sent shockwaves through the community. The family involved in the incident decided to take action once they heard what their son went through.

“I ain’t doing nothing but just walking around,” says Ahki Goodsky in a video recording of the incident at the Paul Bunyan Mall.

“I want you out of here or I’m calling the cops,” yells the employee.

That’s what 16-year-old Ahki and his brother Miskwaabines Goodsky (who was filming what happened) were told, with the man telling them they needed to leave the property immediately.

“So we first pulled up, we parked on the Dunham side, and we were just walking around the mall shopping,” said Ahki to Lakeland News. “And so we got to like the middle part. And we seen, he was just setting up, and we were just walking around near where Foot Locker used to be. And that dude from the video just started yelling at us and walked up. We’re just all kind of, like, stunned. We didn’t know what to do. We’re just looking at him, watching him walk up on us. And I just stood our ground, just let him yell.”

In the video, Ahki can be heard saying, “It’s a mall.” The employee proclaims “No,” and then says, “It is a mall. It’s trespassing on private property. If you’re not shopping, if you’re not, whatever you’re not doing, and you’re not shopping.”

The teens say the incident was still ongoing once the cameras were off.

“He was still yelling at us the whole time, followed us all the way to Dunham’s. That’s when he got pretty close to me. I would say it was probably this close from me and my mom,” said Ahki, referring to the space between him and his mother during the interview, “when he started just yelling at me, and that’s when he had to step in. And that’s when he backed off.”

“He got up in my brother’s face, started yelling at him,” explained Miskwaabines, Ahki’s brother. “Said he will have to throw us out if we didn’t leave.”

The family wasn’t too happy when the kids came home and told them what happened.

“They came right in the door, came right to me to tell me about it,” says Tara Novak, mother of Ahki and Miskwaabines, “And I was heated. You know, as a mom, I just couldn’t believe they were treated like this. I was in my sweats and my slippers, I was ready to get my van and go confront him.”

The statement that seems to have hurt the family the most was when the employee said to Akhi during the recording, “There ain’t nothing here for you.”

“That part broke my heart,” says Novak, “Him to have that mentality and to believe that when there’s other shoppers in the mall, you know, and it’s going to happen again, you know, if he thinks that’s okay to think in that way.”

But since she believed her boys handled the incident in a peaceful manner, that is what inspired the mother to organize what she called a “peaceful loitering event” at the Paul Bunyan Mall on Sunday, April 14, exactly one week after the incident took place.

“I hope today it brings awareness that, hey, we’re not going to tolerate that kind of treatment anymore that’s just been going on for too long here in Bemidji,” explained Novak, “Not only to show support for these boys and what happened to them, but to also, you know, make a statement that we can be here, too.”

The family says they are just left confused about why the incident took place, and hopes the event brings awareness to this issue for other families.

“What his mind was going through, I don’t know why he was just targeting us,” said Ahki. “There were other people walking.”

“It’s pretty embarrassing having to go through that in a mall with a bunch of other people walking around and getting yelled at in front of people,” added Miskwaabines.

“I just don’t want that to ever happen again to any other kid,” said Novak.

We reached out to Paul Bunyan Mall representatives for comment, who had this to say: “At this time, there seems to be more to the incident than was on the recording. Like any business, we do occasionally get complaints and we look at both sides and we do our best to handle them appropriately. We do have an ongoing training to handle all types of situations.”

Novak told Lakeland News that around 50 people showed up for the peaceful loitering, and that she’s thankful to everyone who showed up to participate.